Last week at Mont Ste Anne, Catharine Pendrel (Luna) appeared to crack the code of women's World Cup leader Julie Bresset (BH - Suntour - Peisey Vallandry) with her decisive victory, so the anticipation was for a classic battle at round five of the women's cross-country World Cup at Windham, New York. Bresset took the win over Pendrel on the final climb, with Marie-Helene Premont (Maxxis-Rocky Mountain) moving up one spot from last week to finish fourth.

Pendrel won the World Cup overall title with her victory here in Windham last year, and was clearly on form. Bresset had matched the Canadian pedal stroke for pedal stroke last week until her crash, and Windham started the same, with both riders dropping the rest of the field on the first climb.

Pendrel and Bresset attained a 40 second gap over the rest of the field by the end of the first of five laps and never looked back. The duo rode together for the rest of the race with victory coming down to the climb on the last lap. Bresset had the better attack and came over the top in the lead, while Pendrel had some mechanical problems on the descent. Bresset's winning time was 1:35:36, with Pendrel claiming second, 39 seconds back.

"I'm very happy with my win," commented Bresset. "Catharine was very fast today. I attacked at the right time and she couldn't follow me. Catharine was more comfortable on the downhills than I was, and she attacked me many times, but I still had enough strength left to launch the final attack."

Pendrel was philosophical. “Julie was attacking and I was trying to hang on. And then my spare tube fell off on the descent and got caught in my rear wheel. I was hoping to catch her before the line, but what can you do. It was a pretty good day.

Veteran racer Marie-Helene Premont (Team Maxxis - Rocky Mountain) looked a solid bet for third place, based on her strong ride through laps three and four. However, Annika Langvad (Team Easton Rockets) bridged the gap to catch Premont on the final lap. They rode together to the finishing straight where Langvad carried more speed to claim third, five seconds in front of Premont. As Premont faded she was lucky to stay in front of a charging Georgia Gould (Luna Pro Team), who Premont beat to the line by only one second.

Premont was very pleased with her ride. "I'm happy about the race I did today. I got stuck a bit in the pack at the start, so I was trying to pass to catch Catharine and Julie, but it was hard to get away from the [chase group], so I gave it everything on the third lap. I got pretty close, but on the fourth lap I cramped, maybe because I pushed too hard, but I was trying for the win. So I'm happy that I was able to finish fourth even with the cramp."

Emily Batty (Subaru –Trek) had a somewhat disappointing race with her 18th place today, after her breakthrough seventh place at Mont Sainte Anne last week. "It was a very hard race right from the start. There were bottlenecks on the first climb and in the first turns. Then I got kind of in a no man's land with no one to ride with. I didn’t feel quite as strong as last week."

This was Bresset's third World Cup of the Series and she leads the points standings with 1110. Pendrel remains in second with 920. Bresset seems to have a lock on the Series title unless she has some disastrous finishes in the remaining two races in the Czech Republic and Italy. Premont is third in the series with 630 points.

Top team is the Luna Pro Team with three team members - Pendrel, Gould and Katerina Nash (7th) - all finishing in the top ten.

Ferrand-Prevot Takes Third Victory in U23 Women

In the Under-23 women's four lap race, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (Lapierre International) took her third straight win to cement her lead in the series. The French rider rode clear the rest of the field on the first climb, however, Norwegian Elisabeth Sveum (Team Merida Smart Safety) and Kathrin Stirnemann (Central Haibike) kept Ferrand-Prevot) closer than previous races, finishing 18 and 27 seconds behind her respectively.